1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video signal recording/reproducing apparatus and method, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for controlling copying of a video signal when the material (“content”) embodied in the signal is copy-protected.
2. Description of the Related Art
To protect copyrights, generally, a video cassette recorder (VCR), which is a video recording/reproducing apparatus, embeds a macrovision signal. This is an automatic gain control (AGC) pulse in an interval between the 12th and the 19th horizontal synchronizing signals of the first field of a composite synchronizing signal and in an interval between the 275th and the 282nd horizontal synchronizing signals of the second field of the composite synchronizing signal.
According to conventional technology, when a video signal including such a macrovision signal is recorded, AGC is performed during the video recording signal processing. Thus, the video level is automatically adjusted on the basis of the macrovision signal during recording, so that the level of the video signal is greatly reduced. Accordingly, when reproducing a recorded video signal having a macrovision signal, the level of the video signal is very low in an interval in which the macro vision signal is recorded. That causes it to be difficult to recognize an image. In this manner, illegal copying of protected content of video tapes has been prevented.
As described above, the conventional technology has the disadvantage that it cannot be known that a tape to be copied is copy-protected until the tape is attempted to be copied in a normal recording mode, and then the copied tape is reproduced. In addition, in the case of FM copying by a dual deck VCR, normal copy is achieved. Consequently, infringement of copyrights can occur, because a macrovision signal cannot be detected with conventional technology in the FM copy mode.